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Bupa (originally the British United Provident Association) was established in 1947[2] when seventeen British provident associations joined together to provide healthcare for the general public. The firm is a private company limited by guarantee; it has no shareholders, and any profits (after tax) are reinvested in the business. The service offered by Bupa began as private medical insurance, offering policies to individuals, companies and other organisations, and eventually expanded to include privately-run Bupa hospitals.

Approval was given in the same year for a merger between Bupa's Australian arm (which until then comprised HBA and Mutual Community) and insurance group MBF.[4] The merger created what is now Australia's largest private health insurance group, with 3.98m lives covered. On 1 December 2008, Clinovia's name was changed to Bupa Home Healthcare. In October 2010 the firm sold Bupa Health Assurance to Resolution Limited, and it has been rebranded as part of Friends Life.[5] In the end of 2012 Bupa acquired the largest private healthcare network in Poland, Lux Med, from the private equity fund Mid Europa Partners for €400m.[6] In February 2015 Bupa acquired a controlling share in Chilean private healthcare network Cruz Blanca, which has a 21% share in the local market.[7] It emerged in January 2016 that the company was to sell its domiciliary care business, which provided care to around 35,500 people, to Celesio AG.[8]

It bought the dentistry chain Oasis in November 2016 for £835 million from Bridgepoint Capital. Oasis runs 380 UK dental practices, both NHS and private, with more than 1,800 dentists. It has an annual revenue of £277 million.[10]

It bought two care homes in Poole from Primetower in October 2016.[11]

In August 2017 it sold 122 care homes, with 9000 beds, to HC-One for £300 million.[12]

The firm also owns several healthcare companies overseas including Spain's largest healthcare company, Sanitas, and acquired ihi Danmark and Amedex (Miami, US) in September 2005. In December 2007, it purchased DCA Agedcare Group in Australia and New Zealand, making it a leading player in these markets. Also in December 2007, it announced the purchase of Health Dialog,[2] a provider of chronic condition management and "shared decision making" services.

In April 2013, the company acquired Lux Med, Poland’s largest private healthcare provider which runs businesses in health funding and provision all over the country through a national network of 194 health centres, including outpatient facilities, diagnostic centres, hospitals, and a large nursing and residential care home.[13]

The firm has entered the Indian health insurance market through a joint venture with the local conglomerate, Max India, called Max Bupa Health Insurance Limited.[14]

In the Middle East, Bupa has entered into a joint-venture partnership with Nazer Group – a family-owned diversified holding company – and created Bupa Middle East in 1997, operating out of Bahrain.[15] When health insurance regulation issues arose in Saudi Arabia, the company was floated on the Saudi stock market as Bupa Arabia, which is currently the leading health insurance company in Saudi Arabia.

According to Stuart Fletcher in 2013 'there was a six percent decline in the number of individuals covered’ by private health insurance, ‘and the people who are more likely to claim are the least likely to drop the insurance, so the risk pool is deteriorating.’ Bupa has protected its finances by reducing payments to consultants. This provoked the British Medical Association to complain to the Competition Commission, which published a report into the private healthcare sector in 2013, probing insurers’ power over consultants’ fees. It decided that by trying to keep prices down and promote competition, Bupa was doing "exactly what customers would expect". But it did warn that companies like Bupa need to ensure they communicate better with policyholders about what their premiums entitle them to.[16]